I love Jerry's tone on "Go To Heaven". Almost sounds like he's using a compressor or something on some of the tracks, even though it's that classic Jerry crisp clean it's got a real roundness to it... Can't quite put my finger on it, but I surely dig the sound.

I have not worked on getting this tone at all, so could be very wrong, but it almost sounds to me like he has a small amount of envelope filter dialed in, that gives it a kind of squishy sound. Anyone else hear that?

tigerstrat wrote:is this question about what Garcia used live in concert... or in the studio on Go To Heaven?

Good question - I heard the tune on Sirius a week or so ago and I think it was indeed the studio version from Go To Heaven, but I am more interested in the live approach.

This raises a really good discussion, which may have already been hashed out already or could deserve a new topic thread: Preference for studio material vs. live material?

For me, I only ever listened to the studio stuff way back in the day when I was first getting into the band and going through each album, but I have always relied on my tapes and now the archive, Sirius and bit torrent for live material. Even when going to shows starting in 84 and then heavy from Spring 87 until Brent died in Summer of '90, my preference was always live shows, SBD or audience.

But I can totally see an application of the studio material for learning, as it could be viewed as pretty much the definitive refernce for the song or solo, as the live versions are all over the place depending on year and mood of the band . So I can see how the studio material would be helpful to get grounded when learning tunes, but I still go straight to the live material.

A long winded answer to your question - it's the live version(s) I'm interested in

I think it's real important to not look at the GD in so much of a vacuum (something I'm totally guilty of), and the Go to Heven album is a great example. The Doobie Brothers influence is totally unmistakable on Far From Me, but I personally think the real straw sturing the drink is Some Girls, the '78 Rolling Stones album. Keith Richards used the MXR phase 100 on Shattered, I think that the Stones 'Dicso' album was the target for the Go to Heven sound. Garcia, being Garcia picked up the ball and ran with it to great effect.